11 Plus
 

How would do if you had to take the 11 plus?
Give it a try here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today...00/7478154.stm

Re: 11 Plus
 

I failed it the first time round, so I am not about to do that again.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Got the bricks one wrong

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I passed in 1952 but failed today - I must have lost some grey matter with the passage of time.

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I managed a respectable 7....:D Have to admit that some of those questions were quite difficult.

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Six out of eight, here. Got the who/whom/what one wrong, and the number sequence (still don't understand that one).

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got 7 and would argue that I should have had 8 :D

The one about the brush I chose hair, which to me is equally as valid as paint :confused:

Good to see when I passed all those years ago I've maintained my brain level even if my body hasn't kept up :)

Re: 11 Plus
 

Well fail my 11 Plus but I'm now Grammar school material 7 out of 8:D

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You've made me feel quite young, 1952, I wasn't even a twinkle in my daddies eye. You were a teenager when I passed mine.:D

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got the stokolm/skokolm one wrong :(

Re: 11 Plus
 

lol secondary modern for me

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I got 8.

I passed mine in 1981 and I am sure their were a lot more questions back then :D

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got the Who/ whom question wrong.
I was borderline first time round and my mother chose to send me to the sec. mod.!!
I am conversant with the current 11+ exams and I think the one the BBc is using is harder but then it has less choices thereby making the probability of guessing the correct answer higher.

The Stockholm question definitely discriminates against dyslexics and it could also be argued that the paint question does also.

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got eight out of eight. If that's a true representation of '11 Plus' questions then exams are definitely not easier now. They're really much the same.

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Maybe that is the idea.

Re: 11 Plus
 

If that is the idea it would be rather counter productive as by definition dyslexics have a higher than average IQ which is what 11+ exams are designed to measure.
Of course the test on the Beeb did not include any Verbal Reasoning or non Verbal Reasoning question which nearly all Grammar Schools do test, eg both Clitheroe and Bacup Grammar include VR in their exams and this type of question was included back in the early 70's in Accrington

I retract that,the paint question was VR

Re: 11 Plus
 

Hey! I passed again. Whoopee ding ... now I'm off to Accy Grammar, bring on the silly blazer and short pants ... and it's off to the bog for a woodbine!

Re: 11 Plus
 

7 for me,

Knew I'd passed it in '66 when I took it, but my family had no money behind us and the scholarships had gone... ah, but well, Sec Mod didn't do me too bad, got 6 of them pesky GCE's

Re: 11 Plus
 

lol, I wasn't allowed to go because my 3 elder stepbrothers were as thick as pig **** and my stepmother said I shouldn't be allowed extra privileges if they couldn't have them.:confused:

Ironically I lived a five minute walk from Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar, but had to go to a secondary modern school 4 miles away :(

Re: 11 Plus
 

7 for me too :D

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Woohoo, 8 for me!

Re: 11 Plus
 

Well I must be thick,couldn't understand how would do.:hidewall:

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got the who/whom question wrong - except I don't agree with their answer as "who" is subjective and "whom" is objective. Anyway I can still go to Paddock House, or I could if it was still there, and provided I could still pass the entrance exam which was a damned sight harder than the 11 plus. :D

Re: 11 Plus
 

In the question, the subject or the sentence is "you" and "whom" is the object of the verb phrase "do consider" ... it's easy.;)

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got the sum one wrong.

I thought the other where rather easy considering these tests are meant to seperate the brightest students from the rest of the crowd.

I don't understand how people got the brush one wrong, but then I guess thattats because my reasoning is obviously different than theres.

The number sequence was quite simple, just deduction by 7, then 6 and then 23 wasn't the next as it wasn't the deduction of 5... or maybe the numbers started a bit higher.

Is that really representative of an 11+ test though? I don't think it is. We did one in sociology and critically analysed the questions and found plenty of biases.

Re: 11 Plus
 

The 11 plus had been abolished by the time I went to school but I scored 6 out of 8 on this one so I would have gone to grammar school. :)

Re: 11 Plus
 

As we are all so bright I propose we all go on Eggheads or Countdown and clean up. Or better still lets setup a quiz night online and see who the true brains are :-). I`m sure no-one will cheat :-o

Re: 11 Plus
 

I can do and 11 plus, but wouldnt fair my chances on general knowledge lol

Re: 11 Plus
 

8 for me but don't fancy going to Notre Dame again. Thank goodness it isn't there!!

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got 7/8 and also did well in my 11 plus for real all those years ago. Not quite good enough for a Grammar School but good enough for the Accrington Secondary Technical School in Ossy.

I went for crawled, trudged, trotted, raced, galloped
Their answer was crawled, trudged, trotted, galloped, raced.

Hmmm! Galloped – Raced! A horse gallops whilst it is racing or if you like when a horse is raced it will be galloping. I claim a moral 8/8.

The numbers sequence Studio25 was the difference between adjacent numbers and reducing by one each time.

Paint is to brush as ink is to pen lancsdave. The pen writes with ink and a brush paints with paint. You don’t paint with hair.

No one has written a story so all those claiming a score actually got one less.

Good, bad or indifferent my story gives me a genuine 7/8.

With a body made of straw I have to be propped up by a stick stuck in the ground, otherwise I would just fold over. In fact the stick is more of a cross because my arms are just as floppy so they are held outstretched by the cross member. So you could say that I was made just to be crucified.

I spend my days stuck in a field of wheat and my brief is to scare off the birds from eating all the seed that my farmer sowed. Sadly I cannot move around waving my arms so the birds just ridicule me and peck away to their heart’s content. Some even have the cheek to perch on my outstretched arms and one regularly perches on my head and then craps all over my back. It is most undignified and I wish and I wish that one day I could come alive and wring those birds’ necks.

Then on one magic night with a clear sky and a new moon, a light drifted down from the sky. I stared with amazement as the light got closer and brighter until it settled a few feet in front of me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off this apparition and watched as the light faded until I could see a beautiful woman with a star tipped wand in her outstretched hand. Her brilliant white dress glistened in the starlight and then she spoke.

Her voice was soft and warm as she waved her wand and spoke, “Your dream has come true scarecrow and tomorrow you will be able to run around and wave your arms to scare all the birds away. But now you must sleep so that in the morning you will be fit to do your job.”

With that the lady was enveloped in an incandescent light and disappeared upwards into the night sky.

If I could have done, I would have rubbed my eyes but instead drifted off into a deep sleep dreaming of being able to run around.

Next morning as the birds dived onto the field the usual crow sat on my head. But just as it was going to make me suffer the ultimate dignity once again, I move my head and frightened the life out of it. I move my arms around and the birds flew off squawking in a panic. Buoyed by my sudden ability to move I lifted one leg, then the other and found that I could walk and then run.

For the next hour I chased all the birds all over the field with such vigour that they all just flew away swearing that they will never come back.

I patrolled the field until nightfall but not one single bird dared to land in my field. Exhausted I went back to my usual spot and as the night drew on, my newly found ability to move dwindled away.

Today I still stand stock still but the wheat has grown from the seeds and in a few days the harvesters will come along and harvest the crop.

My farmer will be pleased but I hope that he doesn’t leave me out here for the winter and takes me into that nice warm barn where he first made me.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Haven't done it .. 'cause just know would be a piece of cake ... LOL.

Did the first one .. a simple maths question manually, but just wondering how many of you used a calculator .. come on admit it. We didn't have them then, did we ?

Not a matter of if you got 6-8 either, if they had some extremely high results and more pupils than the allocated spaces got this result, they would cream off the top 90 approx who got 7/8 (or even 8). As in other years, if low results, children would get entry if only 5/6.

Re: 11 Plus
 

I always paint my masterpieces with brushes made from natural hair ;)

Re: 11 Plus
 

No calculator used here but did use a pen and paper for the maths question

Re: 11 Plus
 

I did it the old fashioned way.

Two thirds of 834 – divide by 3 and multiply by 2 =556
23 times 185 = 4255
4255 – 556 = 3689

But as you have highlighted. It wasn’t the 11+ itself but the way that the allocations were made.

Re: 11 Plus
 

But you use paint to do it with.

And that was the point a pen uses ink and a brush uses paint not hair.

Re: 11 Plus
 

I failed this one got 5/8 but did pass my exam in 1999 to get into bacup and rawtenstall primary!
Oh well didn't end up there anyway!

Re: 11 Plus
 

You had to pass an Examination to get into Primary school :confused:

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got 5:D lol

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:D my mistake!
Of course i meant Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammer!
God knows how i passed it!

Re: 11 Plus
 

I got 8.

The idea of the 11 plus was to be able to group people of similar abilities together and teach pupils according to their ability. Therefore someone who is dyslexic being allocated to a secondary modern school doesn't mean they were classified as thick. It should have meant that they wouldn't be out of their depth as can often happen when they are expected to be able to read and make notes quickly. I know because one of my daughters has struggled with this.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Got the first one wrong after that sorted .. So a nice 7/8 for me

Re: 11 Plus
 

I decided not to take it, as Mummy and Daddy are paying, so it would be a waste of time.:D

Re: 11 Plus
 

I did actually take the eleven plus in 1976, and passed, even though the concept of Grammar school education in Hyndburn had already ended the year before.

I'm in two minds about it. It does seem fairly harsh that your life is pretty well mapped out at eleven, on the results of one examination.

Some of the most intelligent, and successful people I know have never passed an exam in their life.

Re: 11 Plus
 

and some of the stupidest people i know have GCSE'S lol

Re: 11 Plus
 

...and let's not even get on to MENSA.

Some of the people I know with a supposedly high IQ, have the social skills of turnips.:rolleyes:

Re: 11 Plus
 

One of the most aggressive girls I have ever known went to clitheroe grammar school (and got kicked out for violence against another pupil).

I know a lad a bit older than me who was educated at boarding school too and he was kicked out for punching a teacher in the face.

I'll stick to my rubbish schools, they haven't done badly for me :p

Re: 11 Plus
 

aah.... is that because they naturally have poor social skills or because they have been kept cooped up as children and kept away from their peers becasue they are 'talented, gifted and able' ??

Re: 11 Plus
 

Good question.

I recently watched a programme about 'gifted' children.

It was hard to say who was the most freakish, the parents, or the little monsters they had spawned.

Re: 11 Plus
 

IQ is only a test of logical ability isn't it, not intelligence?

I had the highest level of logical ability in my school year along with a boy who got the same score, we were predicted all A's.

His parents kept him in all the time studying, and indeed he got A's and a B or two. I got B's and C's. We're both doing excellent degree's regardless :p IQ might look good, but it doesnt really get you anywhere if it isn't nurtured.

Re: 11 Plus
 

I find that people with a highly developed logic are artistically retarded.

A vast generalisation, but usually true.:D

Re: 11 Plus
 

carrying on with the generalisation...... autistic children are generally good at art...


no autistic/artistic jokes please!

Re: 11 Plus
 

Presumably that's because of the two different sides of the brain and how we don't tend to use both sides?

I've always been an all rounder, my creative side more with music than art though. By the time I left school I'd let a lot of people down but now they're all happy again. Jolly good.

Re: 11 Plus
 

You sure about that:p

Re: 11 Plus
 

Ooooops! Typo

3699

Re: 11 Plus
 

I used to love maths until my GCSE years of high school when we had a different teacher, and she completely sucked the love for the subject out of me.

Are you allowed to write anything in 11+ exams or is it all mental? I must say that I just guessed at that answer, and only got it wrong because my mouse was sticking and wouldn't let me select the top answer :p

Re: 11 Plus
 

Urgh. Mrs Cook. She could write a book on now to turn a A-grade top set class into underachievers!

Theres? We were taught better than that love!

Re: 11 Plus
 

hey i got 7/8...not bad for me....;)

Re: 11 Plus
 

Secondary modern again for me. Never was too good at maths lol

Re: 11 Plus
 

I heard that when you left Accy for Lancaster, the average IQ of both communities jumped 10 points:D:hidewall::D

Re: 11 Plus
 

Yes Accy's jumped down and Lancaster's jumped up.


And yes Shakermaker, I apologise for my terrible use of the English language there, I really must stop posting when exhausted, I've noticed I do these things a lot when I am getting tired!

Re: 11 Plus
 

By the way hon, how did the exams go? Or do you know yet? I hope everything went :alright:

Re: 11 Plus
 

8/8.. Nothing there that I shouldn't have been able to do at 11.. uses common sense rather than things you have to learn.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Ok not everybody is flipping Einstein you know!;)

Re: 11 Plus
 

So English grammar and arithmetic is common sense is it?

Actually your score was 7/8. I know that the questionnaire assumed that you would write a story about a scarecrow and gave the point anyway, but surely a bright young thing like you would want to write a story and genuinely qualify for 8/8?

Re: 11 Plus
 

Jambutty is correct Andrew .. this is just a shortened version of what was the 11+ included all types of areas, not just the logical/common sense side.

The 11+ was usually a few hours long, split into 2 periods (if I can remember correctly).

Know my son to get into a Grammar School (Ok .. 15 years ago, but after 11+ had finished) .. had to do a 3 hour exam to get in there.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Then I take it back if that's not the full thing. I probably wouldn't have been able to write a story, my spelling and grammar have always been terrible!

Re: 11 Plus
 

At 11 years of age spelling and grammar would not be such a big issue. However the content of the story and how it was structured would.

However if your forte is going to be politics, then brushing up on your grammar and spelling should be a high priority.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Actually nowadays for the local state grammar school pupils do not do story or any free writing. They do however have passages where they have to pick out the spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes.

Re: 11 Plus
 

That’s a pity because getting pupils to write stories exercises their imagination as well grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Compared to being creative, finding someone else’s mistakes is easy.

Maybe that is one of the reasons why modern youth is so destructive (not all of course)? They haven’t learned to create, just destroy.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Actually Jambutty pretty sure was no story writing in the 11+ when I took it, but as described by Polly.

Only when you get to secondary that some schools look at the structure and imagination more .... not at a Grammar School though, they are still strict about spelling and punctuation, plus the structure of course.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Rather a sweeping (and incorrect) remark that, jambutty.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Grammar school for me.Six scored.Deja vu.

Re: 11 Plus
 

I can’t remember my 11+ back in 1948 but the book of quizzes was listing exams from the 40’s and 50’s.

It does state, “Test your knowledge with these genuine questions from the original eleven-plus.” So the questions would have come from those eras and unless they have got it all wrong, included write a short story.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Which remark would that be?

There are three remarks and one question. It can’t be the question because a question cannot be wrong.

Rather than trying (and failing) to take a poke at me and what I post, you really should try first of all finding your brain (you could be sat on it), then engaging it before going anywhere near your keyboard.

So mush back in the creche.:tongueout

Re: 11 Plus
 

n/a

Re: 11 Plus
 

I thought you never started the insult throwing?
It's you who is appearing as a child you fool.

This is the completely incorrect remark. You have no evidence that a) the youth of today is any more destructive than any other past generation of youths and b) that children aren't learning to create. It's an idiotic statement. No need to start insulting people just because you're wrong.

Re: 11 Plus
 

I don’t. It was a response to your attempt in having a dig at me.

But the remark that you refer to is a question denoted by the question mark at the end of the sentence.

My 71 years of age against your 19 years suggest that I have actually experienced more life than you and thus I am much more qualified than you to compare the youth of today with the youth of yesterday.

As I said get back to the crèche.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Oh you must be a paranoid soul. I stated that your remark was incorrect and generalised - nothing more. How you construed that as a 'dig' at you is a mystery.

Possibly. Or, my actual being in the youth of today and you being incredibly out of touch with the said youth may lead to believe that I'm much more qualified to make assertions about my generation.

Stop being a cranky old fool sir. It doesn't suit you.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Have just been up in the loft looking through some of my son's exercise books .. year 4 at All Saint's Primary .. (18 years ago ?). Came across a piece he had written about Moses, updated to modern times .. lol. Comment by teacher was "I will give you a star for imagination and interest, but Jamie when are you going to learn how to use full stops ?" So, structure and imagination was not dead then, plus the grammar. Still feel he is the youth of today at 26. Was not really destructive teaching Jambutty.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Then remain mystified or better still brush up on your understanding of the English language.

I have 4 children (all adults now), 11 grandchildren some still at school (thus they are the youth of today) and 5 great grandchildren who also qualify as the youth of today even if the oldest is only 7.

And to boot I live right across the road from a high school where I cannot help but observe the youth of today from time to time as they arrive at and leave from the school each day. Plus their dinner time antics.

Regarding your final sentence, my remark of the day fits in quite nicely. “It takes one to know one.”

Re: 11 Plus
 

Then I suggest you sign up for the English Language course with me... by definition I can't exactly be a 'cranky old fool' at nineteen.

You know you were out of order to start mudslinging jambutty after my post. I know how hard it is for you to admit that you're wrong so you need not apologise. It's the thought that counts :)

Re: 11 Plus
 

So the quiz was correct in that the 11+ did contain story writing because pupils wrote stories in Primary school.

Come on katex, you know that I didn’t state that destroying was taught in schools. I said something to the effect of, if they don’t allow kids to be creative by asking them to write stories then maybe they will turn to being destructive rather than constructive.

In any case I was posing a question not making a statement.

Re: 11 Plus
 

My granddaughter brought home her school report last week. It's an extremely good report with only one slightly critical comment, as follows.

In English Language, her teacher has written,
"Laura writes interesting and imaginative stories and demonstrates an excellent grasp of spelling and grammar. She makes accurate use of speech marks but she must remember that each report of speech requires to start on a new line."

I thought that was not at all bad (either for her or for her teacher's instruction and expectations)- seeing as she's an 8 year old, year 3 pupil. Schools are still teaching the same lessons as ever they were, Laura is tested on spellings and times-tables, weekly, and she has homework, and with parental back-up it works.

Re: 11 Plus
 

Me I am practically minded not theory so 11+ would be no good. Where would it really leave all those late developers?

Re: 11 Plus
 

"My 71 years .... youth of yesterday" contains logical inconsistencies; for example what follows "and thus" is leaping to a conclusion not justified by the openning words of your argument .... Length of life = experience of life ... nope, doesn't work for me.